The truth about being a travel writer

It's a great gig, no doubt. But there's more to it than what they'll have you believe

Go ahead. Hate travel writers. Along with the rich family we all know and that girl who looks like a supermodel even when she’s just rolled out of bed, travel writers are the people we love to hate, but secretly want to be. And for good reason, given that they’re constantly jetting off to exotic places, staying at some of the most luxurious resorts and being treated like royalty, often without paying for any of it. Honestly, that barely even sounds like a real job, right? We spoke to some travel writers to find out what it’s really like.

Can it be called travel if you don’t really see the place? Nivedita Jayaram, a freelance travel and fashion writer, always wanted to visit Paris. So you can imagine her excitement when she was invited for a fashion show there in 2011. But the itinerary was so packed that she didn’t get to see the city at all. “I couldn’t enjoy the place, couldn’t sit at any of the cafés. I really missed out. It was my first time to Paris and I haven’t been able to go back since.”

When travel becomes work “You’re always thinking about what to pay attention to so that you can tell the reader about it,” said a writer who didn’t wish to be named. “That can ruin a holiday.” Even something as relaxing as a massage becomes work. “I’m always thinking about what cream the therapist applied first or what strokes she’s using,” says Nivedita.

What travelling on someone else’s dime means There’s no such thing as a free lunch. There’s no such thing as a free trip either. Between publication requirements and host expectations, a travel writer has to juggle many roles. “You don’t want to annoy the hotel that is hosting you, or the PR professionals, because they tend to move around in the industry,” says Nivedita. “You’re likely to meet them frequently, plus they’re also the people who help you land similar opportunities in the future.” Speaking of opportunities, Shivya Nath, a travel blogger from India, recalls “When I started out, it took me weeks, sometimes even months, to get noticed by publications that are considered to be the holy grail of travel writing. And expectedly so, because these editors are bombarded with pitches and it takes not just a great story but patience and perseverance to stand out.” Once she managed to get their attention, “Late payments and dealing with editors who took the soul out of a story without once checking with me, gradually moved me away from offering my best stories to them.”

Being away from home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be As exciting as seeing a new place is, travel writers struggle with what they leave behind at home. “People stop inviting you because you’re never around to attend anything,” says another writer, who wished to stay anonymous. Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, friends having babies—life at home continues without them. “Every day feels like Sunday,” says freelancer Priya Ganapathy—and not in a good way. “There is no sense of place or time, no work hours, no routine. So our lives don’t really fit with other people’s schedules.”

Anurag Mallick, Priya’s husband and himself an independent travel writer, adds, “There is little that is as painful as paying rent when you’ve been away most of the month. And that brown water that comes out of the taps when you get back—it’s just the beginning. A bird might have built a nest in the bathroom. You may have forgotten something in the freezer.” On a more serious note, he says, “The lifestyle rules out any possibility to have pets or kids.”

Delhi-based Ritu Agarwal, former editor of India Today Travel Plus, once went to Vegas for a weekend, came back to India and had to leave for Canada almost immediately because of a team crisis. “The next six days saw me on eight long-haul flights. When I landed in Frankfurt on my way to India, I was exhausted. The last thing I wanted to hear was that the skies had shut down because of ash in the air! We spent an agonising night at the airport—no lounges, only stiff plastic chairs. Finally, the airline found us a route back, but only flights to Bombay had seats, so I had yet another flight before I could get home.” She also recounts how, when she was in a remote part of China, she got a call saying her mother had had a fall and needed immediate surgery. It took her several modes of transportation (land, sea and air) just to reach the international airport, and then struggle to get a seat on a flight that would get her back in time.

Frequent travel means erratic schedules, which do have an effect on the body after a while. “It’s the basics that you miss,” explains Priya. “When you’ve been on the road for 30 or 40 days, you just want the comfort of your bed to loll around in for a day.” Which is why, says a writer who wanted to remain anonymous, “Your time at home becomes sacred.”